end of the "tamiya - just toys?" debate?

[mymonsterbeetleisbroken]

a while back in the forums there was a debate that went on for ages, basicly asking are tamiyas rc's just toys? []

basicly if they are then most of us are overgrown kids []

i aint trying to resurrect the debate - but on ebays homepage, sometimes a gift guide thing appears.

on the girt guide theres a link to TOYS AND GAMES

and the picture for toys and games? - a traxxas e max [}]

so if tamiya are toys, surely there would have been a clodbuster there insted[?][)]

[Vroem-Vroem]

Well, i allways say its model build stuff, which it is... But i drive my blitzer beetle as a toy, quick motor in it, just racin round the neighbourhood, but my road car, TT01, i see it as my race car, not my toy

-mattijn

[El Mexican]

Expensive toys.

[smallman28]

Just looking at my Jugg1 and TXT I am always impressed just by the engineering aspect of them,in that respect I wouldnt think of them as toys in the true sense of the word,but at the end of the day you do play with them!

[yannick]

when you are building or rebuilding tamiya's you can see the really cool technical side of the car and that is when I realise that it ain't a toy []

[dudlydigital]

i think it all depends on who the person.(and to some extent what make/model/buget they started out with) for me i started out with a crappy black fox[:I] (hay i was young (10) and skint[]) toy! but when i was able to afford a blackfoot i knew this was a "real grown ups" (lol is there such a thing?) truck and people would tell me so..[8D] but now 25 years down the line people (model shops aswell![xx(]) are now telling me too "ditch the tamiya toys and get a real mans kit like hpi or a cen or even a traxxas![]" (each to there own i guess) but what really gets up my nose is when i get some kid come up to me and say something like " my dad/brother/sister got a tyco/nikko/whatever and he/she car is faster! even worse is when im out useing my tg10m1 and i get "ohh is that a petrol(wrong!)car? or your car is really great and it go's really fast! what make is it?" and you tell them its a tamiya and they turn round and say things like "what a load of **** my granny walks faster"!(why? is she fitted with a 18 block and tuned pipe? lol) so to sum up i would say back in the day tamiyas were (and still are in some respect) top class r/c models its just that people are being brainwashed buy ripoff model shops just out to make a fast buck (tlo1 kit on its own sir? that will be £190[:0][:0]! your 9yr old son would be better off with a savage sir!! major[][] at bed time when it all go's wrong and the model shop cannot fix it! beleve me i have seen this meny,meny times!)mixed in with untrue rumors spred buy kids/mothers/dads/brothers/people who snapped a driveshaft after smaking at full speed into a kurb and automaticlly asume all tamiyas are **** cos they break! and have no willingness/brains to learn about rc models let alone shop around for cheaper deals!

[netsmithUK]

lol - hear we go again.

For the debate - I'm firmly in the "Its a toy" camp.

Yes,

- I know they are expensive - but still less than some toys my kids are asking for this christmas

and

- I know some people make a living from racing them. Good for them. I wish I could make a living from racing toy cars

and

- yes I know they are great bits of engineering, but so are lots of other toys (if you take the time to take them apart and look[}] )

but at the end of they day - the whole 'these are serious bits of sport equipment' is just the marketing peoples way of selling toys to grown men, to help them feel less embarassed about playing with toys. Its also easier to get them to spend more on 'sport equipment' then it is on toys.[]

Its no different to 'professional' yo-yo'ers or frisbee throwers.

I don't mean this in a bad way at all, I think people should be proud about doing what they enjoy[]

Chris

[mrlexan]

Amen Chris!

[dudlydigital]

quote:I don't mean this in a bad way at all, I think people should be proud about doing what they enjoy

id="quote">id="quote">

i totally agree with your statement mr netsmith but i can also imagine how hard it must be for newbies and old hands alike to be proud of our toys when the whole street recons our tamiya cars are just toys! (not models like i call them!) a quick ex of this is thus: my kit built tamiya crome blitzer beetle is called a "toy" by folk BUT nextdoors traxxas rtr elc rusler even tho its very tempermental ans slow is called a model by the same folk?

[yannick]

@ dudlydigital: that's because the blitzer beetle doesn't look so impressive I think

[Stefan(2)]

tamiya toys... mmm, yep!

(Big) boys toys

what is it what they say?

Boys will never grow up

defenetly []

[mud4fun]

You lot don't know your born! [] Having Tamiya's called Toys is the least of my worries....[]

I have to explain to EVERY woman I meet why I like off roading in my 1:1 Land Rovers - here are typical female quotes

"Why do you go off road? you get your nice clean car covered in mud and dirt after you spent so long cleaning it!"

"Why do you want to drive down that dirt track when we can drive around the field using the tarmac road...."

and the 'Best' quote has to be from my Mum who came up with

"Why do you drive that awful old Land Rover, you'd be better off selling it and getting a Sierra, you'll never attract girls in a Land Rover...."

(This was back in the late 80's. She soon learnt to eat her words when I had a whole string of girlfriends in driving my Land Rover including a very nice french girl one year and her sister the year after [] )

I don't mind people calling them toys because although I personally feel the kits are strictly speaking 'models' I still play with them. I also play with my 1:1 off roaders and I even call them my toys! I just have bigger toys than the next kid [8D] My daily driver is a pickup truck and I get enough comments about that too including from my Mum

"Why don't you get a sensible car now you have the baby..."

Ummm, let me think, my 2ton 4WD pickup in a collision with a standard family saloon - my truck will win, me thinks I'll keep the pickup!

[Scorchio]

[^][] Oh this old biscuit LOL. But I see your point MMBIB

For the record I was a deffinate toy man in the last thread & sill am. And still regard the e max as a toy.

On the other hand if it were a Nitro Savage .25 1:8 Then you might aswell put a chainsaw in a 12 year olds Xmas stocking.

[Neil_S2000]

I must admit these days I get more enjoyment out of building, painting, tinkering, restoring than actually driving them. When I was a kid it was the other way round.... [?]

I think they're toys that can be appreciated as great pieces of scale engineering and design.

[Stefan(2)]

quote:"Why do you go off road? you get your nice clean car covered in mud and dirt after you spent so long cleaning it!"

id="quote">id="quote">

You clean yours?????

lol, you got the water hole for that, right

Or what about this one,

she: my VW golf has mutch better road handeling (yes, female driver said that)

me: Can it go up to that hill? (pointing at a small sand dune)

she: Why would i want to go up a hill, there is nothing at the other side..

me: <silence> ... you just can't explain it

[mud4fun]

quote:You clean yours?????

---

id="quote">id="quote">

Only pressure wash the mud off the underside.......leave the mud on the bodywork to prove that my truck really goes off road.......[]

What is worse than having your Tamiya called a toy:

Having your Land Rover called a car... cars are for women, Land Rovers are for men! (No woman drives a car where you you have to scrape the ice off the INSIDE of the windscreen of a morning)

Having your pickup truck called a van....(It isn't white and it doesn't drive at 200mph on the middle lane and then pull off the slip road 5 yards from the junction!)

[irenL]

Well, it's a toy. No, wait, it's a model.

WTH, I could care less what people think of Tamiyas. I grew up with Tamiya (model kits, mini 4wd, R/C). Surely some of their parts are not crash proof, but so are car parts in real life racing cars. You just don't expect a cast iron front spindle to survive a 200mph front end crash unharmed.

I used to like driving them (R/C cars) places. But these days, I'd build them and appreciate the detail they got, eventhough they're not exactly scale to the real thing (driveline wise -open belt driven differentials on real cars?!). And sometimes I'd spend some dough hopping them up as I see fit...i.e: all the alloy parts I'm throwing into my R/C.

The R/C car scene as of late (IMO) has went from scale to total unrealness with R/C cars being able to go 60mph plus. Sure, it's cool, but is there any current production car that can do 500mph on tarmac and still able to turn on a dime? Don't think so.

Yeah, I got toy(s), they're 1:1 scale and smaller (1:8, 1:10, etc...). The R/C cars.... well, they're my smaller toys, classifiable as models. I drive my 1:1 grocery getter for autoX...... it's bigger than the models, and I can fit myself in it.

[Mervyn]

The differance between men and boys-is the price of there toys!!

[Tamiyamandan]

Hmmmmm......Interesting topic.....I am glad when The casheer at the local toy store says "Arn't your kids lucky" Look at all the toys in the basket....and I reply....."The toys in the basket are for me...." they toy in their hand is for them.......I am 36 and love toys more now than I did when I was 10......Be a proud toy collector, Tamiya collector, Model collector or whatever.....There is no shame in being a big kid.....I am proud of it!!!!! LOL

[Petrolhead]

quote: Land Rovers are for men!

id="quote">id="quote">

I agree with you, apart from what do all the mums pick up their 5 year old children from school in!!!!!!! Why oh why do they need a huge road blocking thing like a land rover!

Anyway, im still sticking with the fact they are toys. Thats quite expectable because im 13! I love em, and if i drive them as hard as i want, then surely they must be toys, i wouldn't do that to a non-toy, would you?

[the_icon]

At 39 I have to agree with the 'They are toys' side - if there is one. I waited too long to buy a tamiya mini cooper but finally got one a couple of months ago.

Think of it as a hobby.

I have spent more money on hop-ups for the car and it would have worked out cheaper to buy a 'so called model' but I wanted a mini and thats what I bought.

I also have a real mini and that cost me far more in parts, repairs, maintenance etc.

Who cares what other people think - I'll stick with my 'toy' knowing that I made the right choice

[petercabrio]

quote:

What is worse than having your Tamiya called a toy:

---

id="quote">id="quote">

im with m4fun on this, the tamiyas i can handle being called toys, people are usually jealous and just want a go

it when people call your 1:1 vw beetle cabriolet, which like a tamiya you have stripped dpown and rebuilt and then installed a totally insane 1955cc screamer of an engine in, and heres the quote 'a bit of a girly car'[!] i have come to recognise jealousy in all its forms now.

i just smile and enjoy my big boys toys, because i can, and there mine[]